Trust the process. Sports franchises have been captivated by these three simple words that originated out of the then hapless, yet hopeful, Philadelphia 76ers organization in 2015. The Sixers’ mantra is somewhat of a euphemism for tanking – which can be defined as the stripping down of a franchise’s present assets to acquire future assets…
A little over two years ago, I wrote a piece called “Five Lessons on Hiring Head Coaches,” looking at trends and results from head coaching hires since 2000. With 13 of the league’s 32 teams making changes at the top since then, it seemed like a good time to see if the hiring practices and…
An after-thought on the sports fan calendar 30 years ago, the NFL Draft is now one of the most marketable and highly anticipated three-day spans in the world. It sells the ultimate amount of hope, as teams welcome highly decorated former college student-athletes who are expected to one day be the savior of their respective…
Over the past few years for NFL teams that are rebuilding, the blueprint for potential success has been to draft a quarterback while also having a proven veteran signal-caller ahead of them. It is a method that has had both positive and negative results for many teams. Some of the most successful examples have been…
Dallas Cowboys QB Rayne Dakota Prescott is set to be a rich man within the next calendar year or so. How rich exactly is anyone’s guess, but the 2016 4th round pick out of Mississippi State is eligible for a contract extension after the 2018 season and may look to cash in. Prescott has been…
Everything closes fast in the NFL. Pockets collapse, running lanes shrink and the window to win the Super Bowl can be wide open today and nailed shut tomorrow. A good quarterback improves those Super Bowl chances. He might help to give you a couple of windows instead of just one. Longevity with a team is…
In 1999, Paul DePodesta was hired by the Oakland Athletics as an assistant to the then GM Billy Beane. DePodesta, and his trusty sabermetrics, led the A’s to unprecedented success given their budgetary restrictions. Along with the help of a successful novel and film adaptation, Beane and DePodesta helped usher in an era of analytics…
It’s often said that NFL Draft prospects with raw physical tools have higher ceilings and lower floors in comparison to their more technically refined peers, who, for the most part, usually possess higher floors and lower ceilings due to a lack of superior physical traits to grow into. This can easily be said of a…
Each year the NFL scouting community engages in a shuffle, as both personnel and scouts move between organizations. Sometimes these are individual movements and promotions from team to team, but other times these moves indicate a new front office that is looking to make a shift in the team’s philosophy. This tracker I have put together…
Since the end of the 2014 NFL season, the Dallas Cowboys haven’t been able to get the same production out of Dez Bryant as they once had. They’ve now decided this is the best time for him to be released and to save on the salary cap. Hitting the market in April will make it…
Philosophers say that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” So it is with compensatory picks. The idea was well-meaning: to give something to a team that lost a player. But the notion has become corrupted. The compensatory system does not reward teams that lost players; it rewards those who game the system.…
As the calendar turns to the month of April, the rumors and smokescreens about the upcoming NFL Draft intensify. Is Sam Darnold still a lock to go #1? Will Minkah Fitzpatrick actually fall out of the top 10? What will the New York Giants do at #2? The answer to the 3rd question may be…
Finding the quarterback to lead your franchise isn’t an easy task for any NFL executive. For most teams, franchise quarterbacks are acquired by miserably finishing with the league’s worst record. Others are fortunate enough to fill the position by hitting on the rare 3rd or 4th round pick. Yet, for the unlucky teams that find…
Football evaluation has reached a new frontier. The long-standing practice of watching film to judge a prospect’s abilities remains the status quo, but new (and perhaps controversial) methods are emerging. Analytics – which has become the foundation of scouting in the post-Moneyball baseball era – has found its way to America’s gladiator sport. Not only…
Giants Nation, our minds ache as our soul’s search for a remedy from the albatross we witnessed this past season. Unrealistic expectations and a lack of communication, execution, and an all around massive implosion surrounded the 2017 New York Football Giants, but we must put this harrowing experience behind us and hope the remedy lies…
The NFL’s top wide receivers have been evolving in recent seasons and it’s currently having an impact on how we evaluate and value certain traits at the position. Two drafts ago, Ole Miss WR Laquon Treadwell was considered the next Dez Bryant due to his inability to create consistent separation and strong ball skills, highlighted…